Neufreistadt
Neufreistadt is the new name of the city formerly known as Neualtenburg, changing its name on Jun 19, 2006, after consulting its citizens and by a bill introduced to the effect. It is now an administrative region of an over-arching government in SL, called Confederation of Democratic Sims, and which will soon launch new sims under the same government (Colonia Nova being the next). Rationale Change is the major aspect of Second Life, and groups and projects in Second Life have struggled with a difficult concept: how to make them long-lasting? There seems to be an easy answer: make the land owned by the group a "corporation" and all participants "members of a company" or "employees". This seems to be the best strategy. The alternative is always dependent on a group leader. As soon as the group leader leaves the group, there is the "succession" problem: how do you figure out who will run the group next? At this point, the group very likely will break apart, and each member will form their own groups according to their interests. A third alternative, very hard to implement using the current tool set, is having a self-elected government, which "owns" the land, and a group of people willing to abide by a set of laws (that can be changed by the residents). When a critical member of the group leaves — group founder or sim owner, or any other member of government — you simply elect a new one. In this way, the community of the people and their code of laws are the self-perpetuating core of the group — not an "elite", not an autocratic "ruler", not a "sim owner". This method also has a further advantage: adapting to change. So, if for some reason, a new trend settles in — say, tinies, like it happened in mid-2005 — the government may vote to change things to adapt to the new trends. Unlike groups that are static in nature — refusing to change, unless something dramatic occurs (like a crucial member leaving) — self-governed structures can simply vote on adapting to change. Over time, this means that the group composition is quite dynamic, as old members leave and new come in, laws get changed and adapted, the overall layout is influenced by fashion and trends, new people get more comfortable with the changes while others leave — but the project can go on, undisturbed in its essence. Limitations *Group tools in Second Life were never planned to support self-governed sims. The concept that a government owns a sim, and not an individual user, is simply not embodied into the way Second Life works; there has to be always a sim owner (this might change in the future). Although the Estate Tools only recently allowed delegation of certain tasks, Neualtenburg/Neufreistadt managed to survive for over a year and a half by not having this feature. *To have an effective government, you need to have two key concepts: one is people willingly delegate their absolute freedom in exchange for protection; and the other is the power of the government to make enforcements. In Second Life, the first concept depends on the people; the second one doesn't exist. Linden Lab does not formally recognize "governments"; also, the only "enforcement" a virtual government has is claiming the deeded land, expelling a citizen (ban), and preventing a resident to become a citizen. Fines can be applied, but only if people are willing to continue their participation in the governed land (they might simply pack and go). *For most residents in Second Life, virtual governments is associated with bureaucracy and corruption. Bureaucracy is important to the level it allows for transparency and accountability (Neufreistadt, for instance, had SL's first notary, almost a year before a much better, professional system was developed by Zarf Vantongerloo, but it was not so cool, and had no security — it relied on LL's in-built permission system to work), but sometimes it hampers growth. Corruption is dealt by giving all branches of government an equal amount of power to keep each other in check. History Since its inception as a group-owned tiered mainland sim in Anzere, the government model followed a rather long discussion period held mostly on the Linden Lab forums, for a period of about 10 weeks and involving around 20 people interested in jointly presenting a project to Haney Linden, who raised a challenge on Aug 31st, 2004, for projects to "preserve the snow sims". A proposal based on the forum discussions was elaborated by Ulrika Zugzwang and presented by her and Kendra Bancroft for appreciation; after Haney approved it, the forum discussion moved towards establishing a Constitution, a provisory government, and a layout of the city to be built, inspired on the Bavarian city of Rothenburg, and adhering to the "theme" of a medieval Bavarian setting. Haney's proposal allowed the group to establish themselves on an area in Anzere of about 1/3 of the sim, but getting access to the total available number of prims, and the land was leased to the group for four months, assuming that tier was paid for it over that period (the land could not be resold). Most of the work during those first four months concentrated on finding people to get all the buildings done, get event hosters, attract artists and (naturally!) politicians, setting up some shops for selling souvenirs, and preparing things for the first elections in Second Life. Membership was loosely based on "willingness to help" (and be part of the group). After the lease was renewed for a further four months, there was now the first elected government in place, regularly meeting and establishing their first laws. Most of the discussion during that first term was mostly to raise funds to continue to pay for the lease after its second term. After abolishing taxes (in order to attract more merchants), an attempt was made to establish a casino as a regular source of income, but it quickly became obvious that no model at the time allowed the financial safety necessary to keep the project going. Linden Lab removed the support to any similar projects after much public claims of favouritism, and a decision was made to move the whole city into a private island, called "Neualtenburg". At this time, the whole model of financing the costs of a private island was changed. Citizens were (re)defined as owning deeded land in the city, and they paid a monthly fee that would contribute towards paying the private land to LL. In order to raise some initial cash until a reasonable amount of plots were sold, the City emitted a series of Bonds (that were redeemed after a year), but after a few months (taking into account that now the whole land outside the city walls was available for sale), it was pretty clear that this model would work rather well. Highlights in the life of the city of Neufreistadt were its immensely successful events (Oktoberfest, Expo, Winter Holidays), participation in major SL events like the Dreams Community Fair and the upcoming commemorations of the Second Life Third Anniversary, and a big "worker's strike" during the summer of 2005. At that time, an agreement was made that all subsequent work would be paid under a contracts between the government and the Guild (see below). In the beginning of 2006, the workings of the judicial system of Neufreistadt were put to a test after being threatened to its integrity by Ulrika Zugzwang, one of the founders, who launched all types of attacks to the City in order to destroy it — physically, by deleting buildings on the common ground, and other people's objects; psychologically, through a well-elaborated campaign of misinformation, public defamation on all public channels (SL forums, emails, in-world meetings, wikis, blogs, interviews to the SL media), and pseudo-legalistic threats. Public hearings on the issue were discredited and even used as further tools to break the community apart. By mid-June 2006, the citizens, more united than ever, once and for all broke free by replacing all structures with better content, and finally changing the name of the city to Neufreistadt. The lesson learned in this process is that there is no place in this self-governed city for "unwritten agreements", no matter how old and respected a citizen might be. The Neufreistadt Model of Government While Neufreistadt is integrated into an over-arching governmental structure called Confederation of Democratic Simulators, its branches of government might surprise some, since only one of them is absolutely democratic. This design is unique among constitutional republics, and has suited the city's government rather well for a period of almost two years, making Anzere/Neualtenburg/Neufreistadt one of the oldest ongoing projects in Second Life (that is not a "company"), although it grows at a much, much slower pace than, say, Anshe's Dreamland. Democratic self-government is thus slow in growing. The overall philosophy relies upon a system of bounds and checks between three different branches, each one having a different way of getting new members. The form of government is of a democratic republic, with elected representatives for the legislative branch, who make the laws and amend the Constitution as they see fit. There is no executive power in a single branch (ie. no Cabinet or similar structure); instead, executive power is distributed among the three branches. That way, one avoids the concept that there is a "fearless leader" somehow having ultimate power (even if a rotating one). The Branches of Government The Representative Assembly The Representative Assembly, or RA for short, is the legislative branch of government. It gets elected through a system of factions (people intending to run for office at the RA have to create a faction with at least 3 elegible members), and seats at the RA (currently 5; the number of seats is a percentage of overall population) are assigned according to the Sainte-Laguë method. Faction members are also ranked by a second vote (done on election day as well) among the faction members as well; the highest ranking member per each faction is named the "faction leader" for the purposes of the current term. The highest ranking member in the whole RA becomes the Leader of the Representative Assembly, a title that doesn't have much power, except for administrative duties (setting the agenda and the date/time for the next session). The RA sets its own term (currently: 6 months), but a RA trying to postpone elections indefinitely can be impeached for violating the spirit of the Constitution. Any citizen (and not only the RA members!) can submit a bill for approval, although the bills only become laws if they're voted by simple majority of the members (there is a minimum quorum). At some times, it's impossible to reach a decision during a session, which might take an hour or two, and it is not always easy to get all RA meetings with full attendance; in that case, the RA can opt to vote during a 7-week period. Bills are very often discussed publicly in advance. If the bill does violate the Constitution, the Scientific Council can veto it (and only in that case). Financial bills, also called budget, can be vetoed by the Artisanal Council. The Artisanal Council Unlike the Representative Assembly, the Artisanal Council (AC) does not have elected members. Instead, the AC — also known as Die Gilde (the Guild) — is free to join, and it represents the workforce of Neufreistadt: its workers, builders, texturisers, scripters, animators, and event hosters. Anyone who joins the Guild becomes an Apprentice under a Master in one of the workshops (a loose group of people who work together on a specific project). Apprentices, after proving their worth under the supervision of their respective Masters, become Journeymen (or -women...) and can start producing their The Scientific Council The Civil Service Citizenship Culture, Arts and Education References *Some thoughts on why governments in SL are so hard to implement *SL's most hated project *Official Site of the City of Neufreistadt *Official Forums of the City of Neufreistadt Category: Sims Category: Neualtenburg